The Misfits of Dametreos

Chapter 20: Battle's End

       Willem felt sleepy, very sleepy...his body was on fire from his wounds.
       Ugg....
       His mind was quickly dulling...
       Sleeeeeeep....
       A few seconds later, he was jolted awake by a sharp pain in his leg. His eyes flew open, and memories of what had happened flooded him. He quickly stood up. Looking up, he saw a pirate armed with a spear rushing straight at him.
       SHIFTY BRICK! he thought, and quickly whirled around, dodging the weapon. In one swift movement, he kicked the spear out the pirate's hand and proceeded to fall down on his back.
       I feel stupid... he thought.
       A few seconds later he saw the pirate standing over him. Willem aimed the spear and thrust it right into the pirate's heart. As the pirate cried out, Willem quickly rose to his feet.
       “Megablocks…” Willem swore aloud as he helplessly watched as Barbod took an arrow in the chest.
       Wasting no time, he picked up his daggers lying nearby, sheathed them, and drew some of his hidden knives.
       Time for ranged combat... he thought, stepping over a corpse, If only I wasn't so megablocks weak...
       He reached Barbod around the same time as Bjarn.
       “Take care of him.” Willem said, “I'll take care of these bloody Falcons.”
       As he threw his first knife, he silently chuckled to himself.
       I'm beginning to sound like Barbod...
       The knife hit a Falcon archer square in the chest. Needless to say, there would be many more.
       Bjarn ripped a strip from another fallen sail and carefully eased the arrow out of Barbod’s chest. Blood spurted from the wound but Bjarn quickly dumped the last of Reno's healing potion on the wound before wrapping the sail around the it. As he tied up the bandage, Reno and Aros ran up.
       “Bjarn...what happened? Barbod!!” Reno cried.
       Before Bjarn could reply the deck of the Hornet shifted and tilted fifteen degrees. The Hornet had less than a minute to live.
       “GET HIM ON TO THE SHADOW!!” Bjarn screamed, “WE’VE GOT TO GET HIM OFF OF HERE!!”
       Reno and Aros scrambled forward and grabbed Barbod's shoulders and legs. “Hurry!” urged Bjarn, “I’ll cover you!”
       As the Reno and the Aros fought to get to the Shadow, Bjarn leaped up the stairs to the stern of the Hornet. Grabbing the last of his arrows, he felled nine Black Falcons before grabbing his saber and swinging down on a rope to the side of Drakko.
       "We must leave NOW!!" he shouted, "There's too many off them!!" The deck of the Hornet tilted another ten degrees.

       Graygon jumped from the Crusader ship to the sinking Hornet, just barely making it. As he landed he saw the trouble brewing, Black Falcons were swarming from the other side like rodents. Graygon saw one drop as a knife was thrown deep in his chest. Looking over Graygon saw Willem, wounded, but still much fight in him. Grabbing his bow from his back, he fired arrows as fast as he could, dropping the first Falcon he saw with a shot to the neck. After his first shot Graygon's accuracy started to drop, there was no time to aim, no time to pick a target.
       Just fire at the Falcons! As long as I keep firing it slows them down some! he thought.
       Willem saw the first arrow drop a Falcon, glancing over he saw Graygon firing again. A slight smile came to Willem's face as the next Falcon buckled as the arrow went deep in his leg. Willem threw his next knife, dropping another Falcon as the knife hit him in the chest. As Willem grabbed another knife the Falcons were getting too close for comfort. Willem glanced back at his fallen comrades, still alive he looked back at the Falcons, a shot from behind dropped one of the advancing group. It had to be Bjarn Willem thought, but there was no time to be sure, as another arrow flew past him and hit another Falcon.
       Willem and Graygon tripped and fell as the deck tilted suddenly.
       “GRAYGON!!!” Willem shouted, “COVER BARBOD!”
       Graygon did so until Aros and Reno had managed to carried the Bull King on to the Shadow. Then Drakko and Bjarn jumped aboard, followed by Willem and Graygon.
       Bjarn pulled up the anchor, and the Shadow escaped the wreckage of ships. The Hornet tilted for the last time and sunk while the Rosa Marie and the Crusader ship floated nearby, both severely damaged. Unnoticed, the Shadow sailed off towards the distance.

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